Friday News Roundup - International

Iranians walk past mural paintings illustrating ancient Persian poetry in the Iranian capital Tehran on August 7, 2018. US President Donald Trump warned countries against doing business with Iran today as he hailed the "most biting sanctions ever imposed", triggering a mix of anger, fear and defiance in Tehran.

ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images

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The United States re-imposed sanctions on Iran this week, after pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal earlier this year. Renegotiating the deal was a key campaign promise for President Trump, but tension between the two countries has escalated.

“Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told North Korea’s foreign minister that the United States cannot be trusted, Tehran’s state media said,” Reuters reported. This comes after several Twitter broadsides from Present Trump in recent weeks, and Iran rejection of an offer from Washington to meet.

In other sanctions news, the fallout from the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in England is back in the headlines. The Trump administration said it would level new sanctions against Russia in response to what it calls an attempted assassination.

Under the terms of the sanctions, any attempt by an American company to obtain an export license to sell anything with a potential national security purpose — gas turbine engines, electronics, integrated circuits and testing and calibration equipment — will be automatically denied. Exporters can attempt to prove that the goods will be used for legitimate purposes, but that is a tough hurdle to clear.

We’ll also check in on the diplomatic flare-up between Saudi Arabia and Canada. After the Canadian Foreign Ministry called for the release of several human-rights activists, the Saudi government expelled the Canadian ambassador and rescinded the scholarships of Saudi students studying in Canada, among other measures.

What’s Saudi Arabia’s strategy here?

All that and more, as we discuss the top global news from this week.

GUESTS

Simon Marks, President and chief correspondent, Feature Story News, serving audiences in the U.K., South Africa, New Zealand, Asia and elsewhere; @SimonMarksFSN

James Kitfield, Senior fellow, Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress; contributing writer, Atlantic Media; author of “Twilight Warriors: The Soldiers, Spies and Special Agents Who Are Revolutionizing the American Way of War”; @JamesKitfield